


come on, honey, let's go check on the kids

by downtothewire



Category: Marvel, Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, nico is so soft for karolina though, soft parent karolina, strict parent nico
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 04:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16509752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downtothewire/pseuds/downtothewire
Summary: Nico sometimes feels like she's a parents to everyone in the Hostel. She's constantly scolding and picking up after people, trying to maintain some semblance of order. She's pretty sure that the only thing that has kept her sane throughout all of this has been Karolina.OR a take on what it would be like if Nico and Karolina are the Mom Friends of the group.





	come on, honey, let's go check on the kids

The hostel is in disarray, and Nico can't take it anymore. She feels like she is the only grown-up amidst a house full of children. She is constantly walking around picking up clothes from the floor and putting food back in the refrigerator so it wouldn't rot. It's like the others don't understand they are runaways.

Her sulking is interrupted by the sound of an explosion.

"What the fuck was that?" Nico exclaimed.

An embarrassed Chase walks around the corner, blushing, "Sorry! That's my bad!" He looks like a child scared of being scolded.

Nico follows the noise to see the practice dummy laying on the ground on fire, she sighs, and like it's routine, grabs the staff and just proclaims: "Extinguish flames."

The flames on the dummy evaporate into thin air as if they were never there.

Nico pinches her forehead in frustration, "I'm running out of ways to extinguish fires, Chase. And I feel like they might be useful for battle."

"I know, Nico. I'm sorry," he replies sheepishly.

"You've said sorry the three other times too," she points out.

"This is different! I'll go out and I'll get a fire extinguisher!"

"I don't need you to get a fire extinguisher. I need you to be more careful. Can you promise me that?"

"I can," he says looking down.

"Good," she finishes, but when Chase starts to skulk away, Nico continues, "Actually, Chase!"

He turns around, trying to make himself look small.

"On second thought, the extinguisher was a good idea. Buy it the next time we go out shopping, please."

Chase seems to perk up, "Okay! I will!"

He hurries out of the room, and this is only a small example of what she deals with on a day to day basis in this house.

She would have gone completely insane if it wasn't for the one thing that kept her sane: Karolina. They have been dating now for a while now, and Nico never thought she could ever feel so comfortable with one person. Having shut herself out from the world for so long, it still feels weird to her that she feels so open with Karolina. Karolina doesn't even say anything, she just smiles sweetly at Nico and she finds herself spilling everything that's inside of her soul. She doesn't judge her for anything she says, she just listens. Nico isn't used to this kind of unconditional love.

Wait, love?

Oh, fuck, they definitely have never talked about that before. She isn't even sure if she can call Karolina her girlfriend. I mean, she'd want her to be, but are they? They do share a bedroom together, that has to mean--

Her musings are once again broken by noise, this time by a loud roar followed by a crash coming from the living room. Nico tightens her hold on the staff and runs into the living room to see what is going on. She arrives to see Molly wrestling Old Lace, currently the dinosaur is in a chokehold. Old Lace is squirming, and Molly has a huge smile across her face. Alex is sitting to the side completely engrossed in his laptop, and ignoring what's going on. Beside him is a broken lamp, the shards all over the floor.

"Aren't you going to do something about this?" Nico asks, looking directly at Alex.

He must understand she's talking to him, because he looks around him, and then at her, and shrugs.

"Are you serious?"

"They're having fun," he mumbles, already back to looking at his laptop.

Nico glares at him while he completely ignores her. Old Lace whines loudly, breaking Nico's glare. She turns to see the dinosaur turning purple.

"Molly! Let go of Lace, she's struggling!" Nico scolds.

"She started it!" Molly answers.

"I don't care who started it, now end it!"

Molly lets go of the dinosaur and huffs loudly sitting herself next to Alex with her arms crossed in front of her. Lace looks at Molly smugly and just curls up on the floor.

"Alex, would you mind cleaning the shards?" Nico asks.

"I'm busy," Alex tells her.

"Are you serious?"

"Nico, I'm currently trying to track Jonah's location. Could this wait?" he explains.

Alex is the only one who has the power to make her feel like the child. Of course, he's working on something important. Alex is the only person Nico would say is more focused than her. She stomps like a petulant kid into the kitchen looking for a broom.

As soon as she leaves the room, however, she hears Molly running and Old Lace growling before her nails scrape the floor as she runs away. She sighs, and decides to let the situation play itself out for once.

In the kitchen, she finds Karolina making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She smiles as soon as she sees Nico. Nico feels her frustration melt away.

"Hi, babe," she says, making Nico blush.

"Hey," she walks over to Karolina and gives her a quick kiss, "What are you making?" she asks even though she knows.

"PB and J's," Karolina says. She finishes one of the sandwiches and starts to cut off the crust on the ends. Once she finishes, she pushes it to the side among the other ones.

"Really? You're cutting off the crusts?" Nico asks, half-teasing.

"Yeah, Gert doesn't like them," Karolina explains.

"You spoil them too much," Nico says as she comes around and wraps her arms around Karolina's waist and lays her head on her back - too short to rest it on her shoulder.

Karolina laughs earnestly, "No, you're too harsh on them." Karolina drops the knife as she turns around in Nico's arms and kisses her. They lazily kiss for a while before Nico pulls away and rests her forehead against Karolina's.

"Crusts build character," Nico mumbles.

Karolina pulls away to laugh, "You're so stupid."

She takes the knife from the counter and washes it in the sink. She places it back in the drawer where it belongs. She then grabs the peanut butter, screwing the lid back on and places it inside the cupboard. She does the same with the jelly, but places it in the refrigerator.

When she closes the door to the refrigerator, she turns to find Nico standing right there. Nico places her arms on either side of Karolina, "It's so fucking hot when you clean up after yourself so I don't have to," she says before leaning in and kissing Karolina with fervor.

She starts to let her hands wander under Karolina's shirt, letting them slide against her ribs. Karolina's skin breaks out in goosebumps. She pulls away to breathe before leaning in to whisper in Nico's ear, "Just you watch me do the dishes after everyone's done eating then."

Nico looks at her, hungrily, "I like the way you talk dirty," her expression then shifts to something more smug, "but I could think of something else I'd rather eat," she says with a smirk stuck across her lips.

"Nico!" Karolina exclaims and lightly slaps her on the arm.

Nico laughs out loud, "I'm sorry. I had to. You just gave me that one."

Karolina smiles at her before leaning in and continuing to kiss her.

"You're insufferable!" They hear Gert yelling from another room. They pull apart. Nico groans and rests her head on Karolina's chest.

Karolina chuckles, before pushing Nico back, "Come on, honey, let's go check on the kids."

"Do we have to?" Nico asks.

That is immediately followed by the sound of Molly screaming, "Ow!"

"I think we do," Karolina finishes. She drags Nico by the hand towards the noises coming from the living room. They find Gert screaming at Chase, while Molly has a gash on her arm and Old Lace is standing next to her trying not to look guilty.

"I'll take Molly, you take Gert?" Karolina asks.

"Fine," Nico concedes, and they separate after a brief kiss.

"It was an accident!" she hears Molly claim as Karolina approaches her.

"I know it was, Molly. Don't worry. Let's just get you patched up," Karolina soothes her. Nico can hear the compassion laced beneath those words and it makes her wonder what she ever did right to deserve Karolina.

Nico walks over to break Chase and Gert up, when she sees that the shards that were previously on the floor are cleaned up. She turns to Alex who is still on the computer.

"What happened to the broken lamp?" Nico asks.

"I cleaned it up. Didn't want Molly to get cut on them while her and Lace wrestled," Alex says.

"Oh, thanks, Alex," Nico finishes. Maybe she should give him more credit, she decides, before focusing her energy back on the screaming duo.

She grabs Gert by the arm and drags her out of the living room into the hallway.

"What's going on?" Nico asks, sternly, her hands on her hips.

"He's a jerk," Gert mumbles.

"Why is he a jerk?"

"I told him to leave me alone because I wasn't feeling well and he just left."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! He's such a jerk," Gert continues animatedly, "I can't believe he would just leave."

"No," Nico interrupts, "I'm asking if you're serious? If you ask someone to leave you can't get mad at them when they do."

"But… he should know I didn't actually want him to leave!" Gert tries.

"How would he know that? Have you told him?"

"Well, no..."

"Don't you think maybe you should?" Nico asks, her patience wearing thin with the two of them not being able to sort their shit out.

"I- I don't know," Gert stammers.

Nico sighs, "Chase, can you come in here?"

He walks towards them, dragging his feet on the carpet, looking at it as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"I need both of you to do me a favor," she starts, "And get your heads out of your asses and sort this shit out, because I can't take it anymore."

Both of them look at Nico wide-eyed, "Are we clear?" she continues. Chase nods. "Good now go to your room and kiss and make up, before I make you."

"Okay," Chase responds. He takes Gert by the hand. Gert is still too stunned by Nico's forwardness to move on her own. Nico really thought that she would be used to it by now. It's not as if she's ever anything but direct, anyway.

"There are sandwiches in the kitchen if you want some," Nico says before they're too far away, "Karolina cut the crusts off yours, Gert."

Gert answers back a small, "Thanks," before following Chase to wherever he was dragging them.

"Don't forget to wash the dishes after!" Nico exclaims after them, but they're already gone.

She goes back into the living room to find Karolina finishing to apply Molly's bandage, and Old Lace resting her head on Karolina's lap. She walks over to them admiring the amount of care and caution Karolina has when patching any of them up.

Molly looks up from Karolina's work to see Nico walking towards them. Her mouth and eyes widen comically, "Nico! I swear, it wasn't on purpose. We stopped, but then Lace was looking at me all smug and I just, I just--"

Nico stops her before she can continue, too tired to be anyone's parent right now, "It's fine, Molly. Just be careful next time."

Molly nods fervently. Karolina finishes her work before placing a kiss to Molly's arm, "All good," she says.

"Thanks, K," Molly tells her before running off to some other corner of the house, Old Lace hot on her trail.

Karolina senses her frustration and reaches out to Nico. She rubs her knuckles soothingly with her thumb. She seems to think a bit before saying, "Come on. Follow me," and Nico does.

She drags Nico by the hand out of the room, pulling her up the stairs. Not that Nico wouldn't follow Karolina anywhere without questioning it, but she still decides to ask, "Where are you taking us?"

"You take care of everyone all day," Karolina says, stopping and placing a small kiss to Nico's neck, "Let me take care of you for a bit."

As Karolina continues to press faint kisses onto her neck, Nico's emotions win out like they always do when she's around Karolina and she whispers, "God, I love you."

Karolina pulls back with a smile so wide it reaches her ears, "I love you too," she says before dragging Nico into their room. If this is how her days ended everyday, Nico's pretty sure she'll be able to keep her sanity.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! First things first I'd like to say that this idea came to me when I saw a text post by @hope-i-dont-choke on tumblr, who posted about Deanoru being the mom friends, and Gertchase being the teenage hormonal ones.
> 
> Second thing, I'd like to say I'm sorry for disappearing from here for a bit. I loosely explained it a few days ago on Tumblr, that I was finding it hard to write about love after my relationship ended recently. But this small inspiration really helped me through it. I've been making progress on Night So Long's last chapter as well as working on another one-shot. Sorry, everything's been taking so long but I hope this sort of makes up for it a bit.
> 
> Thank you for sticking by me and reading this, I hope you enjoyed!


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